Ashton Kutcher has almost 4 and a half million followers on twitter. That’s equal to more than half the population of New York City. Dude couldn’t find his car, but he found 4,291,162 people that think he’s worth listening to.

How did he do it?

Ashton Kutcher was one of millions and millions of people–famous and not–that flocked to Twitter and started sharing, chatting, an selling to each other.

Of course Twitter, has been the hottest thing on the internet for two years and was an obvious choice for reaching that huge number of potential movie-goers, reality-show watchers, or whatever else he wanted his fan base to become.

But wait…

Studies show that a full 60% of people leave twitter after a month and never come back. Who are these people? For obvious reasons, I like to call them Qwitters. They heard about a fad, decided to follow it, and then for whatever reason, decided it wasn’t worth their time and lost interest.

Which is fine unless…

You’re an internet marketer. As a web marketer, you aren’t allowed to just stop interacting with your customers or selling your product–a web marketer should always have something to say about their service or product.  Tweet about a new offering, blog about your holiday–or comment on a friend’s blog mentioning it, create some fun link bait, or even post a couple of inspirational quotes. Anything is fine as long as you are asserting your existence an letting your customers know you are there and still believe in the message and stand behind your product.

But I don’t like Twitter!

And that’s fine. We’re the first undead marketers to tell you not to blindly follow web marketing trends. But no matter whether your platform is your twitter page, your facebook, your myspace, your blog, or your email newsletter, never stop letting you’re customers know you’re there.

The point is…

Even aplusk started with a big 0 as his follower count, but he tweeted everyday, stayed on target and never quit. Take the same attitude towards your website marketing. Remember to assert your existence and speak to your customers everyday in any way you can and never be a Qwitter.

One trend I see on a regular basis, are companies following a dead trend or one on it’s way out. Typically once a marketing trend catches on, it’s already dead. Your competitors are hoping you follow their lead. Thats what makes them the leader and you the follower. They are already thinking 6 months ahead and you can barely keep up. It’s all about taking chances. If the risk you take is successful enough that will carry over and hopefully will snowball into more trend setting ideas. Yes there is trial and error involved, but it’s always the risk takers who reap the benefits.

One great and recent example is a friend of mine, Phil Kaplan just launched a new business called “blippy“. It’s controversial in the fact that it involves making credit card purchases publicly available online for all to see. It’s the next Twitter. Instead of telling your followers what your doing, you passively do so by making purchases. This creates a way of letting people know where you are, and what you’re doing and gives a clue on what you really purchase without even typing in an update.

Phil’s always been a progressive thinker, thats what makes him so successful.

Bottom line, take risks. If you don’t you’ll always be in second place.

Wow, well aside from the long cool headline this is big news from Google. Basically Google will soon take your personal web habits and cater the results for you. This is good and bad depending on what side of the fence you stand. Google has always been about search relevancy. This is great is you search for similar things on a regular basis and want to omit the search results you never choose anyway. The ones who will suffer from this are the companies who will infomercial you via search results. You know who I mean, the ones who optimize their sites to rank for terms that sometimes have no relevance but are hoping to find customers blindly.

I think this can be great for legitimate businesses. Yes it may be harder for you to gain ranking but you know what, this means fair and equal balance among competition online. Build a strong brand the old fashioned way and you will be rewarded. If you’re a new business, then concentrate on word of mouth and standard marketing strategies first before shoveling a bunch of cash into a pay per click campaign.

Ok, first off. If you don’t know what Augmented Reality is you may be asking, whoa… this sounds pretty weird. Actually Augmented Reality is a new Web 3.0 coined term which merges online life with real life.

Here’s an example. There are several iPhone apps that allow you to view through your iPhone camera in real time while overlaying web elements on the screen (map, directions, description of what you’re looking at through the camera). This sounds very sci-fi. But really we need to start thinking of how marketing strategies will be developed this way since we are quickly moving towards a reality of merging web life and real life.

Dreamers can now apply far fetched ideas into something real, usable and profitable. Imagine being able to create unique ad’s for customers walking by your store in real-time, or being able to find restaurant reviews and locations based off a geo-targeted picture taken on your phone. There are still plenty of kinks and new developments to be made to make this hybrid of web and life truly functional. But right now is the catalyst of ideas to come.

Even more far fetched, imagine using Google Street View. Now imagine you see a car in street view, you hover over it and an ad is displayed for used cars of that make and model. The ideas really are endless and I’m really looking forward to what Web 3.0 brings us.

If you’re a small local business and you want to get on your local customers online radar, your first priority is getting your physical address all over your website. Zip codes and alternate names of the neighborhood your business is in will definitely increase your organic rankings in Google. When customers are searching for a local business, they usually enter a keyword followed by the zip code, or the name of the neighborhood with the keyword of the product they’re searching for. Then Google will show a hybrid local result using their map and normal search engine results link underneath it (see map image above).

Getting local organic results is the first challenge, next is getting quality customer reviews about your business. Setup a customer survey questionnaire, have customers fill them out and encourage them to post the results on google maps. Come up with an incentive for your customers to do this. This should be your top priority, think of it as word of mouth which essentially it is because the quality of referrals you get from word of mouth are usually high.

Bottom line is having an established connection between your physical business and online presence should be taken seriously. With little effort you can boost your customer reach significantly.

It’ really boring and stale the same old SEO tips and trick articles you see online. I recently got an email from someone marketing an SEO tips webinar and how to dominate Google, and be listed in the top 5 results for your search terms. So I decided to attend it purely out of curiosity because I know how these things go already. To keep the story short, I left the webinar 10 minutes into it because it’s the same old boring crap everyone has heard before. It really surprises me on how long you can keep up this game of tricking people luring them in with big promises just to spew out garbage that you can find on Wikipedia.

So here’s my tip. Write about what you love. Keep your site going with steady content for about a year to gain traction. Most people looking for a quick buck don’t have patience, and are not in it for the long haul and it shows because they’re not doing something they love to do. Yes add in the typical standard SEO best practices, but just keep it going. Write everyday.

Remember, search engines change algorithms all the time, so you may be listening to information that really is harming your site and not helping it. Most articles I see is information thats a few years old already and thats a lifetime on the web.

So here’s the secret, pure intention always wins. And I think Google’s algorithm favors honesty more than keywords.

Google, Yahoo, eBay and Microsoft have now all positioned themselves to offer free temporary Wi-Fi access in some public spaces and airports in the hopes of drumming up their advertising efforts. This can go a number of ways. It can be a great service to cut costs for the average person who looks to surf the net for free, or can be a pain to those who see this as a potentially intrusive move with big business bullying themselves to get in front of a mass audience.

Personally, I think it’s a win win. Free access but you have to use their search engine. Big deal, sounds great to me. The only objection I would have is how much access they will have in tracking what you do from your mobile device or laptop. This is where free wi-fi can eventually go wrong because of all of these companies being so data driven and hungry to stay ahead of each other that they lose site of customer experience.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if you are blind to the overall goal of these companies and just want to casually surf the internet for free, then there is really no harm done.

Sites such as HSN and QVC know this and sales have been steady to show this model works. They use their network channel as a sales person and their website as their catalog.

What if you don’t have a product but offer a service? This model of web video still works. Getting face to face with a potential customer even if it’s digital will increase your chances of selling your service through credibility and trust. Purely spoken information will increase leads and sales due to the lack of attention span to read on the web. Most people tend to listen better than they read when digesting information, so take advantage of this method of selling.

Video is even better for advertising online since there are so many sites that promote video. Most sites you can submit your video to are free and some can even earn you money. Driving traffic to your site with customers that have already seen your product tends to yield better conversion since a customer has made the choice to visit your site after seeing what you offer. With a small little investment in a video camera and reading a few simple tutorials online, you will have a new arsenal of web marketing tactics ready to go.

Optimization isn’t just a term used for search. You can optimize all facets of your business from yourself to your employee’s to software purchases and web hosting packages. You need to itemize the biggest expenses your company has which is probably advertising and narrow things down from there. I know several large companies with million dollar campaigns running with many inefficiencies where their money can be spent better in other areas.

Look for any and all inefficiencies of your online business. Always stay on top of new marketing techniques, make sure you read current industry blogs within your vertical market and ditch anything that doesn’t convert to sales. Pay close attention when analyzing your site for any holes in the sales conversion process. Getting feedback from customers from a quick multiple choice question form is a great way to find out areas your business may be lacking.

Without any major changes, little by little you can save money and potentially save your web business.

Customers are not the same. They are all different and have different needs. If there is one recipe for an online businesses success it would certainly be great customer service. Anyone can sell something online, but it’s how the customer interacts with your site and the attention given to a customer which is integral to creating a loyal, satisfied long term customer.

If you’re selling a specific product, you should be knowledgeable about that product if not an expert. One thing that turns off customers is an uneducated seller who is concerned more with unloading a product for profit than actually believing in what they are selling. When you’re knowledgeable about your product it puts the customer at ease. The customer feels confident buying from you because they know if they have a question or issue it will probably be addressed quickly and thoroughly. People like confidence, especially when buying a product.

One example is the use of mobile applications. The market for mobile apps right now is huge. If your online business is thinking of creating a mobile application, the best strategy would be to provide something that benefits your customers. Giving back so to speak is a great way of providing value to your customers and at the same time can be used as a very effective marketing and feedback tool.

When you provide value to customers that goes beyond what you are selling, it creates a positive memorable experience for them. This is crucial for any future marketing or word of mouth buzz you may want to create through your customer base. If you want your customers to promote your site without them knowing, the best way to do that is to ensure they are spreading the word to their friends and family about your service and why it is a pleasure doing business with your company.

Always keep the customer happy.

A great and free way of getting some link backs to your site as well as promoting certain products to a wider range of customers is using news article sites such as e-zine articles. Sites like these offer content for use to re-post on other websites. You write an article, and someone in need of web content related to your subject will post it on their site. The benefit to you, they need to include a link to your site to credit you for the content. Pending on how general your topic is, it could be re-used on dozens or hundreds of sites. That means dozens or hundreds of link backs to your site, which in turn can significantly boost your search ranking.

Another simple way of promoting your website is to create a press release. There are many sites online that will publish your news and send to the local news wires. The news should be something significant to warrant having a press release such as a launch of a local web business or new product. This will certainly get temporary traffic to your site. This is great to tie this into a product you may be promoting heavily on your site that you want customers to see.

Sometimes large marketing tactics with a small business marketing budget isn’t possible, this is where you need to get creative, go grass roots and get your guerilla marketing on! Getting quality visitors to convert better is tougher to come by. People are keen on bait and switch and other scams, so integrity and quality on your site is important.

The basics which have been covered many times is to setup simple search engine ads through all the top search engine companies. The cost is determined by the keyword you bid on to have your ad show up. The more you’re willing to spend on one click of your ad with a related keyword, the higher you’re placed in the ad results section of the search engine. A way to stretch your budget out is to do some research with International search engines. Most other markets may be cheaper to bid on highly sought after keywords. Also look for alternate keywords related to your product. Don’t always go for the obvious. Use one of the dozens of keyword tools online to determine what is best for your company. Try simple misspellings of certain keywords also.

Next is to brand everything with your domain name. Business cards, email signature, social networking profile pages. Depending on your business model and product offering, you should post flyers with your domain name and offering. Your goal should be to drive as much traffic as possible to your site for little to no cost for the first few months.

Submit your sites URL to all of the top search engines. There usually is an add URL link on their sites but sometimes you have to search around for it. Submit it to directories such as dmoz.org.

Search for user forums related to your business. Get active with posting on the forums, gain credibility, don’t blatantly promote, but discuss with others and drop light mentions of your business and always have your URL in your profile signature.

Social networking sites are great for promoting your business. Make a profile on a few sites like facebook, linked in and twitter with the name of your business. Keep people informed with new products and ideas not only on your main website but in these areas also. Word of mouth buzz is priceless when looking for traffic to your website.

Small strategies like this can gain momentum and you will see a better return on your investment rather than throwing money away without really knowing what works best, and what quality leads and customers your getting.